Race, Place, and Unsolicited Job Leads

Abstract

Does the ethnoracial composition of local labor markets influence informal regulation of employment opportunities? To address this question, we link Census data on racial composition with survey data on unsolicited job leads in the 23 largest U.S. metro areas. The aim is twofold: (1) to operationalize three distinct conceptualizations of ethnoracial composition (general diversity, co-ethnic presence, and particularistic representation), and (2) to examine the influence of each at two distinct levels of local labor markets (the metropolis as a whole and occupational segments within each respective metropolis). Logistic regression results reveal that the odds of receiving unsolicited job leads do not vary by metro-level composition, but they do increase significantly with shares of white workers in local occupational segments. These results suggest that racial preference and privilege scale up to influence how employment opportunities are socially regulated in and across local occupational fields.

Donor Financial Capacity Drives Racial Inequality in Medical Crowdsourced Funding

“…While social capital can yield valued benefits in poor communities (Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993;Stack 1975), such networks may be less effective either because network alters do not have the needed resources, because they are less likely to share scarce resources they have, or because they cannot expect reciprocity (Lubbers, Small, and García 2020). Network-driven inequality has been particularly well studied in the domain of employment search (Granovetter [1974(Granovetter [ ] 1995McDonald 2011;McDonald et al 2016;Pedulla and Pager 2019;S. Smith 2000;2005), and my study of network inequality in crowdfunding builds on the concepts established in that field.…”

Race, Gender, and Networks: How Teachers’ Social Connections Structure Access to Job Opportunities in Districts With School Choice

“…First, the forms of social capital resources that are privileged in the economy are not equally distributed across social groups (Lin, 2000). For example, relying on established and certified candidate pools when hiring can have negative consequences in contexts where women and racial minorities hold fewer positions of power and hiring authority than white males (McDonald et al, 2016). Second, networks tend to be homogenous (Castilla et al, 2013;Fernandez & Sosa, 2005).…”

“…This, in turn, affects the power of networks in accessing positions. For example, McDonald et al (2016) find that the odds of receiving unsolicited job leads increase significantly in occupations with more white workers. Furthermore, there are more instances of opportunity hoarding in competitive labor markets, and access to job information becomes less accessible (McDonald et al, 2016).…”

“…Networks tend to be racially homogenous (Castilla et al, 2013;Fernandez & Sosa, 2005) and often reproduce existing social structures. As McDonald et al (2016) note, job opportunities are often "guided by white preference and privilege, regulated through network mechanisms, and linked to distinctive historical circumstances and ethnoracial power dynamics " (p. 16).…”